Familiar of the Lost Shadows
by Slavok
Summary: It wasn't supposed to be this way. Sure, Louise's familiar was powerful, with magical powers and a disregard for the laws of physics, but wasn't she supposed to obey her? But try to convince Midna that she's not the one in charge. Go ahead and try.


Familiar of the Lost Shadows

Chapter One

Midna would never forget the moment she lost everything. In one instant, Zant had taken away her kingdom, her throne, even her body, and he did it all with just the wave of a hand.

Midna looked at her own hand, and forced herself not to look away from the withered, impish limb. She gritted her too-sharp teeth and cursed Zant a thousand times over. No punishment would be enough for that traitor! The rest of her people were little better off than Midna herself; Zant had deformed them too, stretching out their arms and turning them into hulking beasts made for war. He had turned her people into monsters and Midna into a _freak,_ and for that he would die.

But not today. No, today Midna needed to leave and gather her strength, and she knew just where to find it. She carried with her a Fused Shadow. A single piece alone was little more than a fragment of the legend, marking her as the Twilight Princess, but if she could bring all four together, then new powers or not, Midna would _rip_ Zant apart!

"I'll be back for you," she whispered, watching a herd of the Shadow Beasts that had once been her people, and her thoughts turned to the traitor who had ruined them both. "And I'll be back for you, too."

Her farewells offered, she set her mind on leaving her realm and reaching the World of Light where the rest of her destiny lay.

WWW

Louise would never forget the day her dreams died. She always hoped that she would become a great mage worthy of her family name, that her life would become something other than a series of failures. Instead, while everyone else gained a familiar, Louise stood in an empty field.

She bit her lip to keep it from trembling as Professor Colbert approached her. "Please, Professor, let me try again! I'm sure I can get it, I know I can!"

"Louise," he said softly, "you have tried again. And again. And again."

"Yes, but if you give me one more chance, I'm sure I could—"

He put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry. We'll work out something else for you tomorrow."

Something besides magic, he meant. There was so much tradition wrapped up in the Familiar Summoning Ritual that a mage who could not summon a familiar was not a mage at all. She looked around at the crowd around her, and for the first time since she began going to school, her classmates wouldn't even _laugh_ at her. Instead of mockery, some looked at her with pity, and most wouldn't even look at her at all.

 _Don't cry_ , she thought. _Don't let them see you cry._

"Class dismissed, everyone," Professor Colbert said. "If you have any questions concerning your familiar's eating habits, contact me during normal office hours."

The crowd dispersed, and Louise made her way to her room. She kept her face a stone up the stairs, down the hall, and until she closed the door behind her. Then the tears came.

She threw herself on her bed and sobbed into her pillow. No more second chances; she had failed for the last time. She'd be sent home, have to face her parents, and spend the rest of her life as the shame of the Valliére household.

"So, are you always this pathetic?" said a voice from behind her. "Or did I just catch you on a good day?"

Louise rolled over to see who would dare barge into her room like this, and saw a shadow. It floated in the air, black and translucent like a thin curtain. The figure was humanoid, though smaller in some areas and exaggerated in others. It—or she, unless Louise missed her guess—had a round face and body and narrow arms and legs. She wore nothing but a large, ornate helm that covered one of her eyes. While the rest of her being was veiled in shadow, the uncovered eye was red and orange.

Louise wiped her eyes on her sleeve and pulled away from the creature. "What are you?"

"What are you." the creature repeated. "That's polite. My name's Midna, thanks for asking."

"Oh, my apologies." A floating shadow was lecturing her on her manners, because why not? "My name is—"

"Louise, yeah, I heard." Midna stretched and reclined in midair, as though resting on an invisible couch. "Are you good for anything?"

"Am I … good for anything?" Louise repeated.

"Yes. Are you good for anything? You don't look like it, but I'm a bit short on subjects at the moment, and I thought I should offer you a position since I borrowed your shadow."

"Since you … you _what_?" She looked down and saw that she left no dark silhouette beneath her, and the lights in her room seemed to shine through her as if she weren't even there. "What did you do that for?"

Midna shrugged. "It was bright out, and yours was the closest."

Bright out? Then it clicked. "Oh, Founder! You're my familiar! I summoned a familiar!" She jumped out of bed. She _hadn't_ failed! For the first time in her life, she had cast a spell that _worked_!

Midna's red-orange eye narrowed. "So that was you? Maybe you really will be good for something. Very well then, I accept you as my servant."

"Huh? No, you have it backwards. You're my familiar, so that means you're _my_ servant."

"Oh?" She sounded amused. "Are you certain of that?"

"Yes," Louise said, trying to regain the dignity and demeanor that befitted her rank, which would have been far easier if she hadn't been sobbing into her pillow a minute before. "I summoned you as my familiar servant, so I'm in charge."

A massive orange hand shot out of the imp's helmet, grabbed Louise by the ankle, and yanked her into the air. Before she knew what was happening, she was dangling upside down at eye level with the creature. "No," Midna said. "I really don't think you are."

Louise grabbed for her wand, which had fallen out of her pocket just out of reach. No! If only she had her wand, she could do, well, not a lot, but something! This was why the summoning ritual always had a teacher to supervise; the familiars could be dangerous.

Midna tossed her back onto her bed and turned away. "Well, if you're not interested in being my servant, I'll find someone else."

She felt dizzy about being tossed around like a child's toy, but when her mind cleared she realized she couldn't let the creature leave. "Wait! Don't leave! I need your help!"

"That sounds more like your problem than mine," Midna replied, not turning around.

"But if I don't have you as my familiar, I could get sent home!"

"So that's what you get out of it," Midna said. "What about me?"

Her mind raced. "Well, um, sometimes the familiar gets special abilities."

Midna didn't float back. She dissipated into nothing and reappeared standing at the foot of Louise's bed. "What sort of abilities?"

Good, she was interested. Now Louise just had to keep her that way, because whatever she was, Midna was clearly a magical, intelligent creature, putting her at least on par with Tabitha's dragon. If she could show up to class tomorrow with Midna as her familiar, no one would make fun of her again. Unfortunately, she had focused more in class on what she would get out of having a familiar than what the familiar would get in return.

"Um, sometimes a cat will learn how to talk?"

Midna rolled her eye. "I can already do that."

"And they become more intelligent."

"Again, I already got that."

"And they live longer." Animals tended to live longer in captivity than in the wild, but Louise left that part out. "Besides, just look at Founder Brimir's familiars! Some of them could use any weapon ever made, or even magical items with absolute perfection!" That was a legendary example instead of a textbook one, but if it got her a familiar, she'd use it.

Midna seemed to be considering her words. "Alright. Let's say I don't like it. How long would this arrangement last?"

Louise winced. "Until one of us is dead."

Louise was worried a lifelong contract would discourage the creature, but it didn't. Instead, Midna looked out the window where the sun had just set, and seemed to be thinking about tossing Louise out of it, and she smiled. "That doesn't sound so bad." _Oh, Founder, she's going to kill me._ "How does it work?"

"Um, well, I already summoned you, so all that's left is to seal the contract, which means I, uh, I have to kiss you."

Midna blinked. "That's all? Well then." The dark, translucent covering fell away, returning to Louise as her shadow. Midna stood before her with black and grey skin and green, geometric lines on her arms and legs. The only part of her left unchanged was her red-orange eye. "Try to impress me."

Once Midna realized that Louise had exaggerated the familiar's benefits, she would likely toss her out the window in a day or two, but if Louise couldn't get a familiar, her life would be over anyway. She leaned forward and gave the creature—she still wasn't sure if Midna was an imp or a shade or something else entirely—a peck on the lips.

She frowned. "That's it?"

"Hey!" Louise snapped, suddenly angry. "That was my first kiss! Maybe you were hoping for something more 'experienced,' but I—"

Midna hissed suddenly, cutting her off.

"Oh, right," Louise said. "I should have mentioned that it stings a bit when—"

The giant hand exploded from Midna's helmet, pinning Louise to her bed. She realized her familiar wouldn't need to toss her out the window to kill her; she could just as easily crush her to death.

Then the hand was gone and Louise could breath again and Midna was smiling and _Founder_ she had a lot of teeth. The glowing rune formed on the front of her helmet and disappeared into her forehead. "Well," Midna said, still smiling. "Till death do us part."

WWW

A/n With all the hype over the new Zelda game, I decided to dust off all my old Zelda stories and publish them. There are quite a few Zelda/Familiar of Zero crossovers, but in all of the ones I've read Link gets summoned. That makes sense because he _is_ the main character, but I wanted to try something different, and I always liked Midna.

If you didn't catch it, Midna's rune appeared on her forehead instead of on her left hand, making her Mizo … Myozun … the Mind of God, which makes sense to me because she uses magic more than she uses weapons, and she already has a magical item in the Fused Shadow she wears as a crown. If you have any questions or comments, reviews make the world go round, or at least get rid of writer's block.


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